My new baby monoblocks!

I hate to toot my own horn too much but I just can't contain how amazing these turned out!  I had posted before about the new Clarity Caps CSA Series I tried but I also tried several new things at once so I can't really nail down what made the difference.  The other upgrades were Vampire Copper RCA's, Mueller Copper binding posts, Neutrik PowerCon AC connectors, and Vishay Z-Foil resistors at the input.  While they sounded good at the start I've been playing pink noise through them for a few hours every night for the last few nights to kinda help break in the caps.  Last night I sat down to listen to them and my jaw hit the floor!  My speakers vanished and I was hearing a level of clarity I have never achieved before.  At least from an amplifier.  These are essentially single channel versions of the ST35 but also including Dave Gillespie's EFB circuit.  I've already decided to upgrade similar parts in my SP13 and ST120.  All I know is that these things sound better than they have any right to for around $500 in parts!







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Impressive.... !

Nice... Even a mirror build with the pair.  I have an EL84 guitar amp and it is the sweetest thing to behold tone wise.  Can you share a schematic?

arledgsc wrote:Nice... Even a mirror build with the pair.  I have an EL84 guitar amp and it is the sweetest thing to behold tone wise.  Can you share a schematic?

Yeah, the mirrored layout made for some interesting learning experiences.

Check out Dave's lab for more on the EFB circuit which is a better bias arrangement than the original. His paper focuses on the SCA35 but you can find plans for the ST35 version with the pcbs he sells.

http://www.tronola.com/html/dave_s_lab.html

I also used an adjustable feedback circuit that I got from Shannon Parks.

Awesome!  Thanks...

Nice job....what kind of cables are you using?

Sweet!

bluemeanies wrote:Nice job....what kind of cables are you using?

The cables you see all Kimber Kable although modified. The interconnects are essentially the same as the PBJ but I braided them myself with the newer clear Teflon TCSS wire and used cheaper RCA plugs. Speaker cables are the older black and blue 8TC but with the braid spread open and filled with a bunch of used dryer sheets. It was an experiment I tried inspired by Kimber's ultra expensive Select cables. Not sure if it made much of a difference but it was fun trying.

I normally use a newer pair of 4TC for speaker cables and braided all of my interconnects with a cotton insulated copper wire by Homegrownaudio.